I’ve recently been on a business trip to Las Vegas, which of course gives me a chance to see some vehicles outside the usual circle of my small city. Most people go to Vegas to gamble, get drunk and perhaps see the shows. I didn’t manage to do any other those things but did get to make a few curbside spots. One even had some nice, wide hips …

There are, of course, lots of exotic cars like this wild green Lamborghini. More limousines than you could shake a stick at, what seemed like the bulk of Cadillac Escalade production. Exotics aren’t really my thing, but I did come across a few vehicles and even some parked in my hotel parking lot that might just interest our crowd.

Perhaps the most unique one was this dually Suburban. General Motors, of course, didn’t make these straight from the factory, but conversions were available, with a number sold new as a dealer conversion.

There are two ways to go about getting yourself a dually Suburban. One is to get some fender flares, wheels and a set of wheel adapters. You can then bolt up the dual rims to your stock axle. This can be done on the lighter 1500 model but the results are likely for looks only. I’d imagine it causes some extra stress on the wheel bearing as well.

This example has taken the other path and started with the heavier duty 2500 and swapped in the proper pickup truck dually axle. The front wheels have been swapped for heavier duty ones as well.

The fenders are fiberglass but oddly not the same as the dually pickup. As you can see the fuel door of the Suburban requires some consideration. Surprisingly there are still companies offering conversion parts just in case you have a hankering to reproduce this one.

This one makes a bid for being the ultimate Suburban with the powerful (in torque at least) 6.2L diesel engine but falls a bit short being two wheel drive instead of four.

So why the heck would anyone want a dually Suburban? Well it is likely the ultimate nine passenger towing machine with the dual rear wheels providing extra load capacity and stability. People often forget back in the early 80s the number of crew cab pickups around was quite small compared to today and most of them were owned by a construction or oil company. So if you wanted to tow something big and bring the family the dually Suburban was the answer.

If you do a search for dually Suburban there is a surprising number of conversions out there. If you can cast your minds back a few years the bad guys in the movie Twister used a fantastically sinister looking dually Suburban.

21 Comments

Yes it is a fairly common towing solution and I have heard that at least in the 80s many heavy duty trucks came with the axle that was used on the dually models just without the extra set of tires, so you had the capacity already for dual rears.

That lead photo is strange. Normal wide running board back at the rear fender. Follow it forward. Once it reaches the front wheel well, it’s a vertical chromed rocker panel. Weird, like an M.C. Escher print.

I’ve often thought of this; or a plain-ol’ Dooley pickup. The stability would be a great advantage; but the noise, and possibly tire wear, and lesser traction in snow (less weight per contact patch translates to less traction) makes it less than attractive. And the weight capacity of a one-ton frame makes the duals superfluous.

Unless…

…suppose one took the INSIDE tire off; then eliminated the rear wheel well; and just ran it with the outside “dooley” fender? You’d have the wide-track stability but not the trademark scream of duals. Less rolling resistance. And if it were a pickup (even if it wasn’t!) there’d be more room in the load area.

It won’t happen for me, though. These trucks and I are both rapidly getting older; and no longer is a long trip in an RV such an attractive proposition.

GM actually did a concept of this about ten years ago – maybe at SEMA? They did it with the previous generation pickups. Dually fenders, and wider rear axle with one wheel on each side to provide a completely flat bed floor.

Perhaps not. Duals have a macho appeal…to certain, how shall I say, elements in the market.

I’ve driven truck, on and off, over 25 years…and duals are nothing but a source of noise and trouble. One of the greatest developments, from the viewpoint of noise abatement and eliminating worry about chunking flats, is the “super single” wide single-rim tire that replaces duals in many applications.

As for a one-ton truck: A dual setup gives a wide stance; but even somewhat overloaded, the weight doesn’t exceed the capacity of most truck tires. Duals on commercial vehicles are mostly to comply with LEGAL per-tire load limits – and long before you approached that on a C-30 one-ton, you’d be over GVW ratings and license limits.

The car business, including the truck business – as both Bob Lutz and John DeLorean said or alluded to – is a fashion business first. And the proof of that is what’s happened to the no-fashion cars, the Canadian Studebaker and the Checker.

Either the duals or the wide rear track would be bad in snow. The front wheels blaze the trail, and the rears should follow. With duals or wide rear track, you have all 4 corners having to plow through fresh snow. Not a good combination.

The dually Suburban from Twister is a really slick conversion!! That movie is on TNT or TBS or USA constantly, I’ve probably seen it 20 times, and I never noticed it had an extra set of wheels out back (the Jeep J-series that gets wrecked in the beginning of the movie is pretty sweet, too).

This one? Not so much… that fuel door – oof! The running boards are terrifying. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these concoctions or known they existed until now, pretty interesting. If I’m dreaming up my “Ultimate ‘burb” from this era, I’d take a standard axle, 4WD and the 6.2l with a Banks turbo conversion, which I believe was a dealer option too.

I always felt that these conversions ruined the look of the Sub. I’m a bit of a “purist” when it comes to 73-87 (91 for Blazer and Suburbans) Chevy/GMC trucks.
I can almost see the utility of it for someone that needs a Crew Cab Short bed with a Topper out back.

This crop should help. Looks (to me anyway) like the rear edge of the front wheel well takes a straight line down to a tall trim-covered rocker panel. Once you see it here you’ll see it in the main photo. Just a bit of fun.

Or maybe my visual cortex decided running boards on station wagons went out of style sixty years ago, and just doesn’t see them unless forced to ;->

I was doing some work a few years back at a local independent auto repair shop and talked with the owner frequently (a very hyper man with many talents) and one day he said would you like to see some of the custom tow rigs I did back in the 80’s and 90’s.

When he said custom he meant it. The first ones were vans converted to duallys and cutaways for 5th wheels added. He said in the 90’s he switches to subs and Tahoes. He built several super charged Tahoes with blown small blocks and rear fender flares with extra wide high load tires. Then on the suburban that he said was his personal rig he took a mid 90’s 2500 454 and threw a blower on it the put dually fenders on with a super single setup. He then did the oh so cool 3 tone yellow purple and white paint job to match his fountain powerboat. wish I had taken a pic.